Blogger Hacks

An Explanation Of The Comments In The Sidebar

2006-02-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

I've had a couple of questions asked about the Recent Comments In The Sidebar hack. Here's some explanations.

Trouble in Shangri La said...
Is there a way to make only a certain number of comments show?

Yes...and no. From the Blogger help section:

Disclaimer: These aren't strictly the most recent comments, but just the comments for the post on the current page. Also, they will show in order by post, rather than by comment date/time. But in general, comments left on front page posts will tend to be the most recent, so this should be close enough and it still provides an overview of commenting activity.

So, I was wrong when I said it would be just 10. It's actually as many comments as are on your front page. Oh, but that's not all...

The Asian Playboy said...
That's a pretty good hack.

I get a nice round 10, but is there a way to display the title of the post that was commented on? I don't think displaying the time tag is particularly useful for those readers/commenters who are participating in a blog post discussion.

Unfortunately, comments in Blogger are like mini-posts. In fact, on a very large blog, they will take a long time to show up. Because of this, you can't put in any other template tags in there, like the <$BlogArchiveName$> tag.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes

Google Page Creator

2006-02-26T20:30:00.000-05:00

Extremely simple right now, but this will be the evolution of Blogger: Google Page Creator. It's a simple web-page creator, with your own custom page. It's not as full-featured as Blogger, but it lets you customize your content right on the page. As soon as they integrate it with GoogleBase, it'll have the ability to create RSS feeds and multiple pages.

See the (very basic) page, with Site Meter stats to prove you can chunk custom HTML in there, here.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Typing this in the Blogger Widget

2006-02-24T04:00:00.000-05:00

Found at Google Macintosh Dashboard Widgets

This is me getting back on the hacks bandwagon.

Lasthalo HaloScan recent comments

2006-02-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

For those of you who've always wanted to stick recent comments for your blog in the sidebar, but couldn't because you're using HaloScan for comments and trackbacks, there's hope.

The Lasthalo Development Weblog will show you how to put in your sidebar, then style it so it fits in with the rest of your site. Not easy to do, but looks really cool when it's working.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

De-Hibernating

2006-02-16T21:30:00.000-05:00

Well, seeing as how Blogger Hacks got linked at Freshblog today, might as well get back to hacking this thing, huh?

More almost daily hacks coming up.

Difficulty

★★★

Used on this site?

N/A

Javascript Next And Previous Stories

2006-02-02T13:27:00.000-05:00

There may be a way to create a javascript that will but "Next" and "Previous" links at the top of your page. I couldn't get it to work here after 10 whole minutes of trying, so take it with a grain of salt.

Blogger previous and next date links

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Blogger Templates

2006-01-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

Tired of that same old drap look of a Blogger default template? Try Blogger Templates. Some are difficult to install, and will delete anything you've got in your current blog, so install them with care.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Add A Picture To Your Header

2006-01-24T16:30:00.000-05:00

Ever wanted to add some hip, now with it graphics to the top of your blog? Here's how to do it.

First of all, you need a header image. Obviously, I used the one up at the top of this page. So, where to stick it? That's the trick. You create a draft in your posts, and save it.

When you save the story, not the HTML code for the pictures. You copy that code to stick in the Template. When you are editing the Template, you find this line in the code:

Then you replace this part of the code, and only that code, with the HTML for your picture:

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes

Create An Encoded Email Link

2006-01-19T22:45:00.000-05:00

Everybody loves spam. Just loves it. I can't get through a day if I know I'm not gonna get me some spam.

Unfortunately, there are people who don't want us to get our yummy spam 230 times a day. Those evil people use encoding to filter out all that tasty processed meat product.

That's a picture of what it looks like when you use an Email Address Encoder. To stick it on your blog, just copy that code, and paste it in your template. You can see mine over on the sidebar.

Don't forget to stick <a href="mailto: before the encoded email address, and ">Mail Me (or whatever you want)</a> after.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes

Your Blog ID Number

2006-01-19T22:15:00.000-05:00

You'll need this for so many future tricks, that it's pretty much the most important number you'll have to have to mess with Blogger. It's your blog ID number. I got this from Blogger Help, but it's another one of those thing that's right in plain site, but you never think about it.

You'll want to create a text file with that in it. In fact, you'll want to start you a Blogger Hacks file, with some of these helpful codes in it. You can copy this one, replacing the number with your own data:

Blog ID Number: XXXXXXXXX

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes

Extremely Non-Obvious Search Hack

2006-01-18T12:30:00.000-05:00

Less of a hack, and more of a "aha!" moment. Ever wonder why there's no search field on the sidebar? It's because it's up there at the top. Up there. Look.

You would be amazed at how many people don't realize that.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes

Where's your trackback URL?

2006-01-17T00:30:00.000-05:00

I was going to put HaloScan trackbacks here, but, then I thought...why?

See that "CREATE A LINK" down at the bottom? Use that to create a Blogger post to link strait to this story, or, you can write one, get it picked up by Blogger Blog Search, and then it'll show up here.

Either way, it's all good, Bloggerly speaking. Just make sure that "Allow New Backlinks on This Post" is enabled in your post.

NOTE: You don't have to be on Blogger for it to pick up your feed in Blog Search. All you have to have is an RSS feed of some sort, and it will pick it up automatically. You have to do very little.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes

Blockquotes

2006-01-16T18:15:00.000-05:00

Wanna know my #1 pet peeve? Blockquotes on Blogger. Blockquotes are the stylized text that look different inside stories, used as a way to attribute the writing to somebody else. It usually looks like this:

Stuff in blockquotes

However, most of the new templates Blogger provides leave any style to the blockquote out, so you can't even tell it's there. Also, it's not really documented anywhere, but the button that looks like “ is the blockquote button.

If you're totally against being boring, and making me really upset with you, you'll put this code on your site, somewhere in-between the STYLE tags:

blockquote: { margin:1em 20px; border: 2px #808080 solid;}

Then we can be friends again. Until then...no talkie!!!

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes

Put video on your blog

2006-01-16T16:30:00.000-05:00

Got from here.

So, you wanna stick cool videos on your site for free? Google Video. All you have to do is find this on the page on the right:

Click that, then copy and paste that code into your page. Now, make sure you have the "Edit Html" selected in your posting window, to make sure you don't mess the code up. Then, you can show movies on your blog, too!

NOTE: This isn't just for Blogger. You can put it on any blog. If you want it to center on the page, just put the code between <center></center> tags.

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

Yes No

Hello World!

2006-01-16T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is my Blogger Hacking blog. Tips, tricks, and how-tos, whenever I get around to it.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Difficulty

★★★★

Used on this site?

N/A

Blogger Hacks

An Explanation Of The Comments In The Sidebar

Google Page Creator

Typing this in the Blogger Widget

Lasthalo HaloScan recent comments

De-Hibernating

Javascript Next And Previous Stories

Blogger Templates

Add A Picture To Your Header

Recent Comments in the Sidebar

Create An Encoded Email Link

Your Blog ID Number

Extremely Non-Obvious Search Hack

Where's your trackback URL?

Blockquotes

Put video on your blog

Hello World!